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Last night we attended our first official adoption related meeting. The local authority we’re using holds an evening before the main prep course so everyone can meet first. It was quite good, with the usual ice breaker game and introductions.

I was a little surprised that out of a group of 19 adopters there was only one single parent and no gay couples at all. All the couples were white married/cohabiting heterosexual couples. I don’t know why but I was expecting more of a mix. With every you hear about LGBT couples/individuals being encouraged to adopt, I expected them to be represented on our group.

I think I may have been the youngest in the room but that didn’t shock me at all. What did surprise (and worry me a little) were the age groups people were looking at. All 0-4 except one couple who were looking at school aged children. The first thing you read when looking into adoption is don’t except to get a small baby as very few are placed for adoption nowadays. It worries me in the sense that all these other couples are potentially looking for the same child you are, and if they are how many other potential parents and looking at the age group. Then you start to look at how many under 1s are placed for adoption per year and it’s not that many. Most children pre-school age who are adopted at 2-4 years old when placement starts. I hope our family is ready for the fact that we’re more likely to have a small person running around than a tiny baby laying in a cot.